efforts are working, Mr. Salinger says, noting thatEntel’s staff turnover rate is well below its industry’saverage rate. “People want to work here,” he says.“They know they can follow a career path, and theydevelop a competitive advantage in the market.”The PMCM also helped improve Entel’s recruit-ment process by establishing criteria that all projecttalent need to meet in order to be hired. This hasensured all new project professionals come to thetable with the required competencies. Looking forpeople with the right experience—and PMI certifi-cations—has made the company’s training programmore efficient, as most new hires don’t need to startwith basic project management courses.

Maturing processes and improving talent management across Entel has made a big difference. For
instance, between 2015 and 2016, the company’s
operations department, which in part executes
technology projects for enterprise clients, set a new
bar for success. Its projects’ overall budget deviation
improved from 9 percent over baseline to 4 percent
under baseline.

Positive results have increased the PMO’s support among senior leaders and across the organization. A 2015 survey of the PMO’s internal clients
showed respondents were 90 percent satisfied
with how projects were being managed. And the
C-suite has shown its appreciation by increasing
the PMO’s budget five times since 2007. Entel sees
this as an investment to help the company compete in an increasingly challenging marketplace,
Mr. Pérez says.

“In the future, all companies will need to managecomplexity,” he says. “If you don’t have the capaci-ties a PMO provides, you will not be able to com-pete and make the right decisions.”Mr. Pérez believes the PMO will help Entel

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navigate impending disruptions. Internet of Things
technology, for instance, will change the industry
by allowing telecommunications companies to offer
new services to customers. Whether organizations
want to track goods across the supply chain or
monitor their patients’ biometric devices, they will
need a network to connect all that tech.

“We think we can give our clients the capacity
to be competitive in their respective industries,”
he says.

The PMO also is helping Entel expand beyond
Chile for the first time since its founding more
than 50 years ago. In 2013, the company set up
shop in Peru, which has involved programs and
projects that must meet a new set of industry regulations. The success of these expansion projects has
depended on the company’s ability to deploy new
infrastructure on time and on budget.

As Entel enters this new competitive market,
it’s relying on the same strategy that has worked
in Chile for decades, Mr. Pérez says: providing
the best possible service and customer experience.
To ensure that, the organization is carrying out a
knowledge transfer process that will embed all the
PMO-backed methodologies, processes and capabilities that have driven success in Chile into its
Peruvian project activities.

In order to make customers happy, “you need to
deploy all your projects in the right way,” he says.
“The PMO brings the capacities to do that. It gives
you the chance to succeed.” PM